NOW it is all done on social media, but in the 50s and 60s, holidaymakers sent messages home written on saucy postcards and a Nantwich auctioneers has some of the original art work up for sale.

The postcards carried punch lines like "It's time you bought me some new drawers Mr Smith", or "Would you like to come in and demonstrate your apparatus” and "That lady is wearing water wings, I saw daddy blow them up yesterday”.

Those smutty vintage postcards, once up there with sticks of rock and donkey rides on the beach, can be had for a few pounds apiece at boot sales and flea markets, but in a sale on July 7, Nantwich auctioneers Peter Wilson have something far more valuable: the unique original artwork for six of the smirk-inducing miniature masterpieces of double entendre.

The 12½ by eight inch (31.5 x 20.5cm) cards featuring busty ladies and wide-eyed – or red-faced gents – will be sold in twos, each pair expected to sell for £200 to £250.

Little is know about the artist who painted them, other than his name was A.J. Williams and he lived and worked in Manchester. But he had a wicked imagination and a sense of humour that would have been at home in any “Carry On” film.

In 1954, the newly-elected Conservative government launched a morality campaign and some of the cards were banned as being obscene.

Auctioneer Robert Stones said: “Old original postcards featuring views of resorts, towns and villages are important pieces of social history that document change and they can fetch surprisingly large sums at auction, particularly in the case of well-filled albums.

“When thumbing through a postcard album stuffed with those seaside gems, don’t overlook the less obvious topographical scenes. Non-tourist picture postcards make significantly more money. For example, a black and white card showing Crewe would be so much harder to find than a view of the promenade at Blackpool or Rhyl.

“Saucy postcards were so popular that many hundreds of thousands were printed and so they remain more common and invariably worth less. However, original artwork for cartoon cards is rare and collectable for the postcard enthusiast, even though our idea of humour might have changed, and we expect them to sell well.”

The postcards are among more than 500 lots of fine art, antiques and collectors’ items, to be sold on Thursday, July 7.